VERONICA A. BETTENCOURT ‘98, PRESIDENT

After lingering on the East Coast for grad school, Veronica moved to California with her husband to join her five closest Brown friends on the best coast. At Brown, Veronica made up her own sub-specialty concentration that blended international relations and political theory. Her subsequent career has reflected her multiple interests, ranging from working at the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia, through being an in-house lawyer in tech for over a decade, to creative writing. Veronica is an avid hiker, nature enthusiast, jazz vocalist and cook.

Fun fact about Brown: While at Brown, Veronica founded her own literary and arts magazine, Ophelia. Ophelia met an untimely death when Veronica could no longer cajole her friends into staffing it post graduation.

CAROL RHOADS ‘70, VICE PRESIDENT

Carol has led organizations through growth and change, from higher education to corporate startup and Fortune 500 healthcare companies. She chaired Planned Parenthood in southern California and was a Santa Clara County Juvenile Justice Commissioner. Now she is a pro bono lawyer for young people aginG out of the foster care system.

Brown around ‘70 (as now) was exciting! Defining moments were the birth of the New Curriculum, political activism, and the passing of Pembroke (along with the skirt requirement on the Brown campus). Carol worked on the nascent Brown Student Agencies and tutored disadvantaged kids. Not to mention Spring Weekend with Sha-Na-Na!

After business school at Columbia, Carol and her husband Keating started a family in San Francisco. After criss-crossing the country, they returned to the Bay Area with the arrival of grandchildren.

NAEEM ZAFAR '81, TREASURER

Naeem is a serial tech entrepreneur, 5X CEO of Silicon Valley startups, an angel investor, and teaches courses on Entrepreneurship at the University of California Berkeley and at Northeastern University. After Brown with an electrical engineering degree, he was exiled to the frozen tundra of Minnesota for graduate school and has been in Silicon Valley since 1988. After teaching ENGIN 1010 at Brown, while commuting from SF Bay area, he founded Startup-Advisor, a company focused on educating and advising entrepreneurs on all aspects of starting and running a business (www.Startup-Advsior.com)

Sci Li days: "It took me a long time to find out that there is another library on campus. Other than flipping between Barus & Holley and Ratty I spent every day in the basement of Sci Li that had a vibrant social scene.

JULIAN BARING ‘97, MEMBER AT LARGE

Julian Baring Class of ’97 is married to Elisa Baring Class of ’99 and lives in Los Gatos with 3 children and a dog. At Brown he was on the Crew Team (Hall of Fame ’94 crew) as well as competed for Brown in Club Rugby, Club Skiing and Club Sailing. Professionally he is currently Adform‘s Regional President, Americas and has more than 25 years of digital and technology industry operating experience across a variety of management roles including marketing, sales, corporate and business development in companies at all stages of maturity from start-up to exit. Julian matriculated with an MBA from Oxford University in 2004 . Julian and his family feel privileged to finally be living in Silicon Valley's beautiful hills, an outcome he predicted over 27 years ago when he visited Los Gatos, the home of his then college girlfriend, now wife. He is a past president of BCSV (2020-2022).

YUDI FU '13, MEMBER AT LARGE

After graduating from Brown with a degree in Computer Science and Mathematics, Yudi biked from Providence to the Bay Area, where she worked as a software engineer at a couple of startups, most recently at Strava. Passionate about the outdoors, she spent the remote working years since COVID nomading across the country visiting national parks. Currently, Yudi is taking a break from working in tech to explore how to apply her server-side software engineering skills to the climate crisis, driven by a deep commitment to environmental sustainability.

During her time at Brown, Yudi spent most of her time in the CIT, conducting research in the Graphics Lab with Andy van Dam and holding TA hours in the Fishbowl. Outside of her academic pursuits, she enjoyed arts and crafts projects with her China Care Brown mentee and engaged in various active hobbies like karate, rock climbing, volleyball, and road biking.

JONATHAN GENTIN ‘86, MEMBER AT LARGE

Jonathan has called the San Francisco Bay Area home for almost 30 years (save for extended sojourns in Padua, Italy and Cambridge, England).  Jonathan enjoys practicing law and serves as a commercial arbitrator for the American Arbitration Association.  His interests include Renaissance art, photography, Giant Schnauzers, and competitive squash.

YARUSKA ORDINOLA ‘23, COMMUNITY SERVICE CHAIR

Yaruska Ordinola is a proud first-generation Latina and multilingual public health professional, passionate about building bridges between communities, culture & science. She grew up in Providence, RI, after her family emigrated from Lima, Peru. Before settling in California, she embarked on a cross-country road trip exploring national parks.

Yaruska holds three degrees, including a Master of Public Health in Epidemiology from Brown. Her desire to improve community well-being sparked her path to public health during the pandemic, working at the RI Community Food Bank. At Brown, she found an inspiring environment fostering lifelong connections.

Currently, Yaruska works in environmental and early childhood public health research. With deep roots in community-engaged research and a commitment to culturally responsive outreach, she's advanced health justice across non-profits, research labs, and government. Outside of work, she enjoys making art, exploring new languages and places, staying active, and sharing stories over delicious food.

JORDAN PISARCIK ‘08, MARKETING CHAIR

Jordan graduated from Brown with a degree in Neuroscience, moved to New York City, and began a career in healthcare. He initially worked in the life sciences area before moving to healthcare technology and digital health, joining an early-stage startup focused on patient engagement that was acquired by Optum (part of UnitedHealth Group) in 2021. He has built and led teams across business development, customer success, and product management.

Jordan moved to the Bay Area in 2022 with his wife, where they are raising a family and enjoying the nice weather. He fondly remembers the strong sense of community and service from his time at Brown, during which he led campus tours and assisted with Admission Office initiatives for new and prospective students. Some of his favorite memories on campus were Spring Weekend and Commencement.

DAVID SABEL '86, P'17, '19, UNIVERSITY LIAISON

David is a Product leader currently focused on the platform build out at Gwynnie Bee, a pioneer in subscription clothing rental. David has lead product teams in e-commerce and online advertising for 20 years at such companies as Microsoft, Yahoo, LookSmart and at startups in the Web Intelligence and Music Recommendation spaces. While at Brown, when he wasn't studying for his degree in International Relations of course, David spent most of his free time at WBRU wrestling with large vinyl platters.

MEGAN STREICHER '05, MEMBER AT LARGE

Megan graduated with a degree in European History in 2005. Some cherished campus  memories include a student job at the Music Department, where staff were served coffee milk as a “perk,” and lining up to use the treadmill at the Bears Lair. First jobs after graduation include teaching at Emerson College and Bryant University. Megan moved back home to the Bay Area where she taught at Notre Dame Namur University in Belmont where, among other responsibilities, she helped edit the student newspaper and led yoga classes. NDNU ended its undergrad program in 2021. Now teaching at a small private HS, she is active in her son’s school teaching monthly art and Social Emotional Learning classes (SEL), the PTA, and her sorority alum group, Delta Gamma. A volunteer at the Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention Commission, Megan is passionate about bringing SEL classes to all youth in our community. She is excited to be involved in this alum group and plan activities.

DOLLAR ZHU ‘23, SOCIAL MEDIA CHAIR

Dollar graduated from the PRIME program at Brown in 2023. During his time at Brown, Dollar loved to hang out in the Engineering Research Center and the CIT, doing research in Human Computer Interaction. After Brown, Dollar became a management consultant in Boston, which made him realize he wanted to “create” more than to “consult”. This eureka took him to the Silicon Valley to build his own startup, BeyondCV, a platform that helps professionals build their portfolio websites.

When Dollar is not working, he loves to play tennis and basketball. He is also a classically trained pianist trying to bring communities together through music.

KIM HIGHLUND ‘04, MEMBER AT LARGE

Kim, a native Californian, is excited to be back in the Bay Area after living on the East Coast (Providence and NYC) for one too many winters. At Brown, she split her time between a cubical at the Sci Li or the Rock, and training in the Pizzitola with the Women’s Varsity Volleyball team. A team captain and 2001 Ivy Champion, Kim no longer digs volleyballs, but the library is still her happy place! After graduating with a degree in Political Science, Kim has gone on to manage projects in television at HBO Sports and the NHL, build healthcare facilities, and create programming in higher education at Columbia University (nonetheless, she is Ever True).